Greece's Rockpages has issued an interview with DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover regarding the promotion of the new album NOW What?!. An excerpt follows:

Q: How is it for an established band like you to work with an also established producer, like Bob Ezrin?

A: "Well, established is one word and “human” is another, you know we’re just people. Of course we are aware of each other’s past and we get on really well. I think he is becoming a very good friend, although we know each other for a few months, less than a year. We did most of the album in July, August, that period and in that time we came very close. He listened to us, and we listened to him. He knows we are a very good band, he knows we could play, he just wanted to capture that freshness, I think he succeeded and that’s what a producer does: he brings the performance out of the band!"

Q: What really surprised me in the new album is that you weren’t afraid to have long tracks, longer than regular 4, or 5 minute rock songs, you went a little further trying new stuff that I haven’t heard from Deep Purple again, what do you think about that?

A: "Well, history is all that we’ve got, doing something new is very important without losing your identity. Sometimes you might become a parody of yourself, there is a danger if you are playing a certain way to sounding the same. It really all comes from the writing, and of course we play the same, because we have the same lineup, the same organ, guitar, bass, drums and vocals, that won’t change and that is our identity, the characters that we are. They way that we play, that’s our identity. So, we actually feel free to explore all kinds of music. There is no such thing to us, as “a long Deep Purple song”. “Deep Purple song” is whatever we play. If we started thinking what people would expect from us, I think we’d be heading towards the wrong direction. We’d be the tail wagging the dog. We have to be the dog!"

Read the full interview at this location.

NOW What?! is due out via earMUSIC on the following dates:

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Spain - April 26th

UK, France, Benelux, Poland, Czech, Norway, Denmark - April 29th

North America, Italy - April 30th

Sweden - May 1st

NOW What?! will include the following 11 songs:

'A Simple Song'

'Weirdistan'

'Out Of Hand'

'Hell To Pay'

'Body Line'

'Above And Beyond'

'Blood From A Stone'

'Uncommon Man'

'Après Vous'

'All The Time In The World'

'Vincent Price'

The official lyric videos for their new single 'Hell To Pay' and 'All The Time In The World' can be heard below:

NOW What?! will also be released in a limited quantity with a bonus track and a bonus DVD featuring Deep Purple in conversation plus additional audio material. This edition will be available in a Digipak with a cut out front cover. NOW What ?! will on top be released as double vinyl LP containing 11 tracks plus bonus track, as in the limited edition CD. Ordering info at this location.

earMUSIC recently released a snippet from an interview with Deep Purple, featured on the bonus DVD included with the limited edition of NOW What?!. Watch the clip below:

An interview with the band talking about the album tracks can be viewed below:

For more details visit Deeppurple2013.com.